{"id":649107,"date":"2026-03-11T23:56:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T23:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/649107\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T23:56:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T23:56:17","slug":"jessica-pegula-overcomes-career-winless-streak-against-belinda-bencic-advances-to-indian-wells-qf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/649107\/","title":{"rendered":"Jessica Pegula overcomes career winless streak against Belinda Bencic, advances to Indian Wells QF"},"content":{"rendered":"

Going into her Wednesday afternoon Indian Wells Round of 16 match, Jessica Pegula was 0-4 in her career against Belinda Bencic.<\/p>\n

Trying to get over the hump and beat a player for the first time is difficult physically and mentally especially in the constantly changing conditions at Tennis<\/a> Paradise.<\/p>\n

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MORE<\/strong>: Learner Tien earns huge come from behind win, advances to Indian Wells quarterfinals<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Pegula, the last American woman in the women\u2019s singles draw, played outstanding tennis in the first set to close it out 6-3.<\/p>\n

She fell behind 0-2 in the second set but won four straight games. Then things got really interesting as Pegula served for the match at 5-4 and was broken.<\/p>\n

Bencic storms back, forces second set tiebreaker<\/p>\n

Sensing Pegula was tight, Bencic started swinging more freely and forced a tiebreaker. The Swiss player has enjoyed a great comeback to the WTA Tour since having a child in April 2024.<\/p>\n

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Little separated the two in the tiebreaker, a net court that bounced Bencic\u2019s way, a beautiful drop shot by Pegula, and some unforced errors.<\/p>\n

Pegula prevailed, and Lindsay Davenport of the Tennis Channel credited her for staying tough mentally to get her first win over Bencic.<\/p>\n

Pegula vs. Bencic through the years<\/p>\n

The four matches spanned all surfaces fro 2015 to 2023. Pegula did not win a set in any of them. Those matches were at the 2021 US Open<\/a> and at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Round of 64. (Bencic won the gold medal.)<\/p>\n

Most recent was a semifinal on clay at the 2023 Charleston Open. Pegula would eventually prevail in Charleston, winning in 2025.<\/p>\n

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She has refined her game, improving her serve and fitness. Pegula has also been a better player after changing coaches from David Witt in February 2024 to a team approach featuring Mark Knowles and Mark Merklein. Pegula is the Dubai champion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

MORE<\/strong>: Aryna Sabalenka explains why she named her puppy Ash<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Jessica Pegula awaits the winner of the Sonay Kartal and Elena Rybakina match to be played later on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\"<p>Jessica<\/p>\n

Jessica Pegula practices during the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, Calif., on Tuesday, March 3, 2026.<\/p>\n

All men\u2019s and women\u2019s singles quarterfinals will be played on Thursday, airing live and replayed on the Tennis Channel.<\/p>\n

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The post Jessica Pegula overcomes career winless streak against Belinda Bencic, advances to Indian Wells QF<\/a> appeared first on The Big Lead<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Going into her Wednesday afternoon Indian Wells Round of 16 match, Jessica Pegula was 0-4 in her career…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":649108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[48],"tags":[8642,4711,23882,265896,21487,68312,47389,62,1464,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-649107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-belinda-bencic","tag-cal-raleigh","tag-hawks","tag-indian-wells","tag-jessica-pegula","tag-learner-tien","tag-randy-arozarena","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116213251322598462","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}